Cymbeline Summary

Gullible Cymbeline and his conniving queen intend that his daughter Imogen should marry his stepson Cloten. Instead, Imogen chooses the gentle Posthumus and secretly marries him. In a fit of anger, the king banishes Posthumus, who flees to Italy after promising to remain loyal and faithful to his bride. As a token of their vows, Imogen gives Posthumus a diamond ring that belonged to her mother; in turn, Posthumus places a bracelet of rare design on Imogen’s arm.

In Rome, Posthumus meets Iachimo, a vain braggart who tries to tempt Posthumus by appealing to his sensuality. Posthumus, not to be tempted into adultery, tells Iachimo of his pact with Imogen and of the ring and bracelet they exchanged. Iachimo scoffingly wagers ten thousand ducats against Posthumus’s ring that he can seduce Imogen.

Iachimo goes to Britain with letters to which he forged Posthumus’s name, which persuades Imogen to receive him. Using ambiguous implications and innuendo, Iachimo plays on her curiosity about her husband’s faithfulness. When that fails to win her favor, he gains access to her bedroom in a trunk which, he tells her, contains a valuable gift he bought in France that is intended for the Roman emperor; he asks that the trunk be placed in her chamber for safekeeping. While Imogen sleeps, he notes the details of the furnishings in the room, takes the bracelet from her arm, and observes a mole on her left breast.

Back in Italy, Iachimo describes Imogen’s room to Posthumus and produces the bracelet, which he says Imogen gave him. Incredulous, Posthumus asks Iachimo to describe some aspect of Imogen’s body as better proof of his successful seduction. Iachimo’s claim that he kissed the mole on Imogen’s breast enrages Posthumus. He sends a letter to Pisanio, commanding that the servant kill Imogen, and a letter to Imogen, asking her to meet him in Milford Haven. Pisanio is to kill Imogen as they travel through the Welsh hills.

On the journey Pisanio divulges the real purpose of their trip when he shows Imogen the letter ordering her death. Unable to harm his master’s wife, Pisanio instructs her to dress as a boy and join the party of Caius Lucius, who is in Britain to collect tribute to the Emperor Augustus and who is soon to return to Rome. Then Imogen will be near Posthumus and can try to disprove Iachimo’s accusations against her. Pisanio also gives Imogen a box containing a restorative, which the queen entrusted to him ostensibly in case Imogen became ill during her trip. The queen actually thinks the box contained a slow-acting poison, which she procured from her physician; he, suspecting chicanery, reduces the drug content so that the substance will do no more than induce a long sleep. Pisanio takes leave of his mistress and returns home.

Dressed in boy’s clothing, hungry, and weary, Imogen comes to the mountain cave of Belarius, who was banished from Cymbeline’s court twenty years earlier and kidnapped...

(The entire section is 1216 words.)

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